Riddle me this: which other component is broken?

In order to return to the world of normal computing functionality I'm trying to fix my PC*. Naturally it is presenting me with riddles, as is its wont.

The HDD was definitely dying (crashes/chkdsk unable to fix discovered errors), however something else seems to be faulty too. (The PC perished to an unresponsive state fairly quickly, so I didn't get to do much by the way of diagnostics.) I'm a bit stuck trying to identify just what as I don't have access to a suitable spare system to swap parts into - hopefully I can figure this out a bit without going straight for replacing all the remaining core components at once.

Currently I have been able to make the PC do these things:

- Blank screen on boot but everything powered up: with and without the old HDD, new SSD, bootable Win7 DVD, and bootable Ubuntu USB flash drive

- A frozen BIOS flash screen: after removing one of the two sticks of RAM I progressed to this. Nothing responds, however - I can't enter the BIOS, change the boot configuration, etc.

This all with minimal peripheries/parts connected, etc. Note that "in the beginning" there was the crashing (mostly out of games, but also from desktop), and it would only boot to the black-screen-flashing-cursor for a few hours. (Heat issue?) After a couple of these episodes it proceed to only boot to a blank black screen but with everything powered up. No beeps, no useful messages anywhere.

Just wondering whether this behaviour gives any indication as to what else is at fault, or is familiar to anyone. It doesn't seem like a power issue, and there was no deterioration of graphics before the booting to black screens. Ailing CPUs usually produce more erratic behaviour from previous recollection. Both sticks of RAM could be somewhat faulty, or is it their connection on the motherboard? The motherboard as a whole? In which case I might as well go for a new mobo/CPU/RAM. (Augh, le monies.)

Well, if anyone has any ideas that would be useful. Otherwise I suspect replacing the motherboard/RAM/CPU is the most likely fix. I'd rather not if some are still working, though. Hurm!

*2008 mid-spec build, WinXP - so a little old, but I was hoping for another 2 - 3 years or so out of the core hardware, as I renewed the graphics card a year or two back and am used to PCs lasting longer. (I know; shh.) Can post up the full spec if that's useful, too.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I'll go see what the motherboard manual has to say, but otherwise I think the mobo/cpu/ram upgrade is the way to go. Well, that'll be pretty fun when it is done, anyhow!

[Edit] ah ha, new posts. Hm, yus - I've had dodgy PSUs before, but this seems a bit different. Hrrum. That might be worth a shot first though. I'll go tinker and see.

Thinking on it there was some spontaneous rebooting a while back too - think I'm going to try the PSU route first. And thanks for the tip, torp, but alas I don't have ready access to one of those either. Oh for the days of nearby pc-building enthusiasts! I think they all ended up with Xboxes or kids instead.

Thinking on it there was some spontaneous rebooting a while back too - think I'm going to try the PSU route first. And thanks for the tip, torp, but alas I don't have ready access to one of those either. Oh for the days of nearby pc-building enthusiasts! I think they all ended up with Xboxes or kids instead.

Oh wait. You can exorcise the evil spirits by using an UPS *before* your PSU is broken, not after.Namely I have "approximate" power and I used to change PSUs every 1-1.5 years before I plugged everything into UPSes.What I'm trying to recommend is to get an UPS for the new PSU, if the old one proves to be broken. Doesn't have to be high capacity, for a home system you're not getting it to have uptime, just to protect yourself from out of spec line voltage and stuff.

- A frozen BIOS flash screen: after removing one of the two sticks of RAM I progressed to this. Nothing responds, however - I can't enter the BIOS, change the boot configuration, etc.

If it improves with one memory module removed, maybe it's a memory problem. Try just the other module. Better yet, try known good RAM, i.e. something without heatsinks covering the chips and chips that are marked as Samsung, Hynix, Micron, Elpida, etc., rather than house branded. Also have the SSD and disk drives disconnected.

Post the make and model of the motherboard, SSD, power supply, and RAM.

Ah, noted about the UPS' torp. Thanks, I shall have a look! Other further opinions about this probably being the PSU also appreciated.

And yus, I'm researching PSUs now. Of course I've just discovered the Seasonic X series - wondrous, but pricey. (Deaded one is a VX 450W Corsair, I think.) They have finally invented modular cabling though! Hoorah! I was glaring at the spidery black-meshed cable nest hiding out in the empty HDD bays (that's the tidied version, too) and wondering if I could pick up a simpler PSU this time. 7 year warranty would be nice as well.

I think the 650W/660W would do, but everywhere here seems amazingly out of stock. The 750W/850W options seem a bit overkill for a fairly simple gaming machine, though. Hm. There again there will be an SSD + HDD + DVD, gfx card, and usual other stuffs. And my planned next upgrade had been the RAM (I think it's running... 2 x 1Gb, heh.) I think I just found some other things to read about choosing your wattage though, as it were.

Hm, well, here's to finding a more amenable and less bastardy PSU!

p.s. Ah, larrymoencurly: I have tried both, either, in original and new sockets with most other stuff disconnected. (It's Crucial, for reference.) No known good RAM available to swap in. Issue could also mean motherboard problem, or ailing supply of power to machine. Various other behaviours and opinions seem to be pointing to the latter option mostly. If this doesn't do it then I'll have to spring for the cpu/mobo/ram upgrade at some point though.

I've got ssd, hdd, dvd, a 5750 graphics card and s 2500 sandy bridge. A 380 is enough for that lot since i got a good reccomendation from here when i bought it. I very much doubt you'll need a 600W psu unless you're running dual graphics cards or more. On which note, i've got a spare used Seasonic S12II-380 that i bought when my machine popped. In my case it was the cpu which had died but i left the new psu in-place because of the difficulty installing them in my case. So, if you need i can try and get the old one to you.

Overall though it sounds like you're well past time for an upgrade and at least one component has died a slow ignomious death of old age. You can get good low to mid range gear that's a big improvement over your old stuff at reasonable cost.

Ooh, that's rather helpful - I have been growing ever more dubious of some 600+ Watts. Thank you!

The Seasonic range seems like a plan as it might well last longer than Corsair in certain cases. (As in scenarios, not chassises.) As such I was considering the S12II as the simpler, less expense option, then next up the fanless, modular 80 Plus Platinum, and then there is the swishy, very silent, modular X series.

I admit I'm a bit taken with the modular design for the cables, just the notion of it is a bit like pressing a highly engineered button with a pleasing click. For the future a quieter PC would also be handy, and so the 400W 80 Plus Platinum and X-400FL 400W are the main contenders. Which seem to be available for a £5 price difference, so might as well go for the X option although I haven't read a comparison review/testing on those two yet. Still, that's £100 on a PSU. Ho, hum!

So thank you Wraith, that is a lovely offer. I think I might just go for the X-400FL though. A little more reading, and then zoom.

Hopefully it will fix up the PC nicely too, of course. I did manage to have a black-screen-flashing-cursor moment this morning with my near-obsolete work PC, but I'd forgotten a USB stick that hadn't dismounted properly the night before and was now trying to be the boot drive, heh. I'm not sure I wouldn't have simply hid under my desk for a while if yet another computer had broken around me though.

Although, as noted, I tend to let things hang on until they're very definitely worn out and every last bit of life extracted. Possibly because my first machines started out that way, being mash-ups of hand-me-down components, hah. I'll see if this new PSU fixes the PC, and then look at upgrading some of the other bits in any case. I wouldn't mind returning to Skyrim and actually seeing some of the scenery beyond a 10 metre (in-game perspective) draw distance. ;D

One of the primary goals for my computers is quiet and because of that i've steered away from fanless psu's. Heat is going to be generated running the system and you need some airflow to get it out. If you have a psu fan it contributes to that airflow, if you don't you have to use other fans to do it. Now you can get big quiet fans that are probably quieter than most psu fans but engineering your system this way requires both more effort and investment.

Newer gear is likely to be more power efficient than older (graphics card doing 3d not counted) so you're likely to get more performance more quietly than in previous generations but quiet can be hard to accomplish if you want a good gaming experience. Low level constant well charactered noise is easier to deal with than annoying occasional fan ramping.

You can move the same air with four fans and half the noise as two fans at full. Sound is logarithmic, take advantage of that by using more quieter fans - they add linearly, so two half noise fans is nowhere near the same noise as a single fan at full noise.